Tag Archives: Sick

How not to handle foodborne illness: ‘put an adult diaper and get back to work’

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Food service employees working while sick is a recurring theme in restaurant-related outbreaks.

Add this scenario:

An outbreak of diarrhea has decimated the staff of a Tex-Mex restaurant and Godfrey the manager, is on the phone imploring a staff member to come in anyway, even if that means wearing an adult diaper.

“Astronauts wear them. Do you think you’re better than an astronaut?”

The scene is from an upcoming Canadian movie called Servitude, and like the best comedy, has an element of truth.

Godrey is being played by Kids in the Hall/News Radio alumnus, Dave Foley. He’s one of the French fur trappers in the bit below.

Dominos fined $120K over cockroaches, bad hygiene in Sydney

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ABC News reports a Dominos pizza shop in Sydney’s west has been described as having committed one of the worst breaches of food safety and hygiene in the Australian state of New South Wales.

The store in Quakers Hill has been fined almost $120,000 after investigations by the state’s Food Authority, following reports from customers who suffered food poisoning.

Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan says conditions inside the store were appalling, stating,

"They had evidence of significant infestation of cockroaches and also very poor hygiene of cleanliness habits. I’m told by our experts at the Food Authority that they’re a prime candidate for spreading foodborne illnesses and that’s why they’ve been given such a big fine. There are always people who don’t do the right thing unfortunately and we need to make sure that we can protect people from foodborne illnesses. Things like food poisoning are not insignificant. There are people every year who die of food poisoning and food-related diseases."
 

Will proposed food safety bill mean fewer sick people? Doubtful

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Apparently I’m alone in thinking the proposed food safety legislation won’t make much of a difference – especially in terms of sick people.

While tomorrow’s USA Today gushes in a headline courtesy of a so-called consumer group that “Proposed food safety bill good for ‘everyone who eats,’” for me, it all just sounds like “The old Potomac two-step, Jack."??

"I’m sorry, Mr. President, I don’t dance."??

That’s what Jack Ryan as played by Harrison Ford said in the movie, Clear and Present Danger. And that’s why I repeatedly ignore what comes out of Washington.

The $1.4 billion food safety bill, which would give the Food and Drug Administration broader powers to inspect processing plants and recall tainted products, cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate, setting it up as a top measure for Congress to address in its year-end session.

What I told ABC News was this:

"Government sets minimal standards, which the best food producers, processors and retailers exceed daily, while talking heads blather. There are bad players in the system, which government is supposed to catch, but given the pervasive food safety outbreaks over the past 20 years, they don’t seem very good at it. Will the new bill mean fewer sick people? Doubtful."

Dr. Douglas Powell, associate professor, Kansas State University

ABC also asked a bunch of other food policy types, and they all agreed, one way or another, that passage of the bill was important.

It’s not that important. Dance?

Be the bug: microbiologically safe food, no exceptions

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Braunwynn, the college freshman daughter, e-mailed last night (although in Canada she’s called a first-year university student).

"Watched this documentary, Food Inc., today. Seemed like one of those things you would get quoted on. Was a particularly emotional part about this mom whose 2-year-old son died from E. coli O157:H7 in a burger. Made me think of you."

I told Braunwynn that I knew the mom, and it was a tragic story. I also told her I wouldn’t get quoted in the movie because while it was compelling entertainment, it was scientific bullshit (or cowshit). “Most documentaries like that are powerful stories, but they are controlled by demagogues — and good demagogues never give up control of the microphone. Then things get messy or confusing, or at least not so simple. love dad”

Braunwynn’s timing was rather fortunate (that’s her on a food-safety mission in 2004 where we watched visitors to this Ontario cheese shop troddle out to the porta-potty with no handwashing facilities and stick their hands in cheese samplers). As the U.S. Senate votes on a food safety bill today – which will not reduce the number of people barfing every day from food — two of the Food Inc. demagogues, Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan issued a statement supporting the Tester amendment, which would exempt small farmers and producers from the proposed food safety legislation.

"S 510 is the most important food safety legislation in a generation. The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, strengthening food safety rules while protecting small farmers and producers. We both think this is the right thing to do."

The most important thing any proposed food safety bill can do is reduce levels of illness and death.

But local food types worry the legislation’s safety requirements could force small farms out of business.

Some of the arguments can be found on grist.org and include:

“We are really talking about two parallel food production and distribution systems in this country. One is inherently dangerous due to its scale, methodology, and distribution model. The other depends on an intimate relationship between modest, local/regional owner-operators, who take pride in their work and direct connection with consumers. … I for one will gamble with my health, and the health of my family, by continuing to patronize local organic farmers. Weighing the risks, and the benefits of superior quality and nutrition, I think I am making a good investment.”

Mark Kastel, co-founder of The Cornucopia Institute and director its Organic Integrity Project

“Small, sustainable farmers spend their money and time on raising safe, quality food. We don’t have the resources, nor the economies of scale, that the large companies have that enable them to absorb additional regulatory burdens. … I look my customers in the face every time we sell them food. I know their children, and I have watched them grow up on the food we raise. I’ve talked with people who are fighting cancer or diabetes, or whose children have asthma — and for whom high quality food is a matter of survival. Several of the people who buy our food are among my closest friends.”

Judith McGeary, founder and executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

I hear these assertions all the time, and wonder, why is there no mention of microbiology? Those dangerous bugs really don’t care about size or politics: local or global, conventional or organic, big or small, producers and others in the farm-to-fork food safety system either know about dangerous microorganisms and take steps to control them – or they don’t.

Braunwynn is a student at the University of Western Ontario in London (the Canadian one), the town that also hosts the annual Western Fair. I reminded her that in 1999, 159 people, primarily kids, got sick with E. coli O157:H7 from the sheep and goats at the petting zoo at the Western Fair. Those sheep and goats weren’t part of big ag and weren’t factory farmed. They are ruminants, and like cattle and deer, about 10 per cent carry E. coli O157:H7 at any one time.

But that doesn’t get mentioned in Food, Inc. Or legislation. Or amendments.
 

Food service workers show up when sick; excuse me while I barf

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A new report says more than 60 per cent of restaurant employees choose to show up for work instead of staying home when they’re sick because they have no insurance and no paid sick time.

Kim Severson of the New York Times writes the report, called “Serving While Sick,” is based on more than 4,000 surveys and hundreds of interviews with employers and employees. It is intended to put pressure on the restaurant industry to improve conditions for its workers. The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United is one of two groups presenting the report at a Congressional briefing today.
 

Salmonella bareilly in sprouts sickens 83 in UK?

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The BBC reports that 68 people in England and 15 people in Scotland tested positive for salmonella bareilly in recent weeks.

The outbreak came to light after routine testing by a salad producer found the bacteria in bean sprouts.

The Food Standards Agency said the outbreak’s source was still unknown.

They have advised that anyone planning to eat bean sprouts should cook them until steaming hot before consumption.

Doctors work while sick: study

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People shouldn’t work preparing or serving food when they are sick because they may spread the illness. That’s become a food safety mantra, and yet outbreaks are repeatedly traced back to sick food workers – like the 300 who got sick with norovirus at the Haaaaarvard faculty club earlier this year after 14 food service employees were discovered to be working while sick. Or the 529 who got sick with norovirus at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant last year, where again, the presence of sick food workers was cited as a contributing factor to the outbreak.

There’s a difference between saying what should be done – sick workers stay at home – and actually doing it – food service workers may get fired, whether they work with divas or in dives.

Medical doctors are the same.

The Associated Press reports more than half of doctors in training said in a survey that they’d shown up sick to work, and almost one-third said they’d done it more than once.

Dr. Anupam Jena, a medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, developed food poisoning symptoms halfway through an overnight shift last year, but said he didn’t think he was contagious or that his illness hampered his ability to take care of patients.

Jena, a study co-author, said getting someone else to take over his shift on short notice "was not worth the cost of working while a bit sick." He was not among the survey participants.

The researchers analyzed an anonymous survey of 537 medical residents at 12 hospitals around the country conducted last year by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The response rate was high; the hospitals were not identified.

The results appear in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Nearly 58 percent of the respondents said they’d worked at least once while sick and 31 percent said they’d worked more than once while sick in the previous year.

Beef recalled from Ontario retailer; people sick with E. coli O157

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) warned the public last night not to consume the raw beef products described below because these products may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

All cuts of raw beef, including but not limited to tenderloin, beef chunks and ground beef, sold on August 6, 2010 from Kabul Farms retail store located on the appropriately named Beverley Hills Drive in North York, Ontario, are affected by this alert. These beef products were wrapped at the store for sale on demand and may not bear a label indicating packing date, lot code, or a Best Before date. So that’s helpful. Consumers are advised to check their home refrigerator or freezer if they have the affected beef products.

CFIA is aware of an E. coli O157:H7 illness outbreak in Ontario and is collaborating with a bunch of agencies but won’t provide any information on how many got sick when and where, although does state the investigation is ongoing.
 

Seek and ye shall find; Cargill recalls hamburger because of E. coli O26; 3 sick in Maine and New York

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Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., a Wyalusing, Pa. establishment, is recalling approximately 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The product subject to recall includes:

• 42-pound cases of "GROUND BEEF FINE 90/10," containing three (3) – approximately 14 pound chubs each. These products have a "use/freeze by" date of "07/01/10," and an identifying product code of "W69032."

The products subject to recall bears the establishment number "EST. 9400" inside the USDA mark of inspection. These products were produced on June 11, 2010, and were shipped to distribution centers in Connecticut and Maryland for further distribution. It is important to note that the above listed products were repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on FSIS’ website at

FSIS and the establishment are concerned that consumers may also freeze the product before use and that some product may still be in consumers’ freezers. FSIS strongly encourages consumers to check their freezers and immediately discard any product subject to this recall.

FSIS became aware of the problem on August 5, 2010 when the agency was notified by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources of an E. coli O26 cluster of illnesses. In conjunction with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, the New York State Department of Health, and New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets, two (2) case-patients have been identified in Maine, as well as one (1) case-patient in New York with a rare, indistinguishable PFGE pattern as determined by PFGE subtyping in PulseNet. PulseNet is a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Illness onset dates range from June 24, 2010, through July 16, 2010.
 

Don’t cook when you’re crook

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Does the headline mean, if you’re a convict, don’t cook? Lots of convicts cook. So I checked the dictionary where I found an Australian/New Zealand definition for crook: a situation that is bad, unpleasant, or unsatisfactory, or (of a person or a part of the body) unwell or injured : a crook knee.

It means if you’re sick, don’t work.

With the chill of winter well and truly upon us, the risk of viral gastro contamination heats up, (New South Wales, that’s in Australia, includes Sydney, and it’s what they would call winter right now) Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan warned today as he urged chefs and cooks to take care in the kitchen during the peak viral gastro season.

"This warning applies particularly to those food industry professionals who come into contact with the preparation and service of food for hundreds, if not thousands of people," Minister Whan said.

"If you’re crook don’t cook is a good basic rule to apply in the workplace."

"Under the Food Standards Code it is illegal for food handlers to handle food when they have gastric illness. It is also illegal for food businesses to knowingly have staff working if they have gastric illness.

"The NSW Food Authority is aware of cases where staff have been asked to work when they were sick, or have not told their supervisor they were sick, putting many people at risk.”